Harpoon Hunter

In the middle of a snowstorm, a polar bear attacks an Inuit camp and eviscerates several dogs. Convinced that the animal is sick and will attack their own dogs again, hunters risk their lives in pursuit. Among them, young Kamik, who dreams of wielding a harpoon with the same ease as his father, will quickly discover the dangers of an existence constantly threatened by the Arctic environment.

Published fifty years ago, Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut (Harpoon Hunter) is considered the first novel ever published in Inuktitut. This thrilling adventure, marked from start to finish by violence and death, immerses us in the reality of a community still preserved from the intrusion of modernity. Above all, through the symbolic hunt of a bear and the difficult apprenticeship of a young boy, it depicts the immemorial struggle that these men and women must wage to survive.

Of rare power and harshness, this seminal novel contributed greatly to the growth of Indigenous literature in Canada. It is translated here for the first time from the original Inuktitut text.